Master of Social Work (MSW) Program

Do you have questions about the UAA MSW Program and the admissions process? Please
join MSW Program Coordinator, Mary Dallas Allen, for an MSW Information Session, which
you can attend in person in 104 Gordon Hartlieb Hall on the UAA Campus or by Zoom
web conference.

MSW Mission:

The mission of the UAA Master of Social Work (MSW) program is to prepare advanced
generalist social workers who address health and social issues in Alaska. Alaska’s
unique and rich multicultural populations, geographic remoteness, and frontier status
allow the real potential for skilled social work professionals to make a profound
impact on social, economic and environmental injustice in our state.

Beginning with admission for the 2016-2017 academic year, the UAA Master of Social
Work program will be delivered entirely through distance education. The School of
Social Work will have a single, distance-delivered MSW program, and we will no longer
have a campus-based MSW program. Students must physically reside in Alaska to attend
the MSW program. Students can complete the MSW degree in 2-4 years, and students with
a BSW degree from an accredited university are eligible to apply for advanced placement
and can complete the program in 1-2 years. The Master of Social Work program at UAA
is an advanced generalist MSW program. The advanced generalist concentration is the
ideal curriculum model to meet the significant and complex needs spanning across remote,
rural, and small metropolitan community needs of Alaska. Social workers in Alaska
are required to assume multiple roles and responsibilities in their work, frequently
serving as the only social worker in their agencies, and quite possibly, the only
social worker in their geographic region. As a result, an advanced generalist social
worker needs to be able to perform multiple roles in the direct, organizational, and
community practice arenas. The advanced generalist curriculum is divided into the
foundation curriculum and the concentration curriculum, and it includes five course
sequences across the curriculum: social work practice, policy, human behavior in the
social environment, research, and field practicum. The foundation curriculum prepares
students to engage in generalist social work practice, and the concentration curriculum
prepares students to engage in advanced generalist practice.